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The Rah’s

It’s fair to say that some of my most favourite discoveries over the years have come out of Scotland, so I was looking forward to checking out The Rah’s as they’ve spent a lot of time developing their sound. Forming back in 2011, the band already have 2 EP’s under their belt, and with the recent addition of Chris on keys and backing vocals, and a fresh approach to their music; they’re back with their latest single “The Time Is Now.” Labelled as ‘ranting rock’ we’re presented with a fresh approach to a single written a number of years ago. It certainly packs a punch and with a sold out hometown show, it’s already building up a lot of momentum.

For those just discovering you please could you tell me a bit more about yourselves? Have you been in bands previously and what has drawn you to form The Rah’s?

We are 4 lads from a small seaside town called Prestonpans which is located on the outskirts of Edinburgh. We have a great passion for music, especially when playing it live. We have all been close friends from a very young age and decided to form a cover band (Feedback) to test our music skills and creativity. A decision was made to change our name to The Rah’s in 2011 as we began to write our own material and take things a little more serious.

Where did the name “The Rah’s” come from?

The name The Rah’s was a drunken idea that looked good on paper and sounded good… so we went with it! A ‘Rah’ is the complete opposite of us by the way, I know it’s stupid but we decided to research it after we had changed our name. Oops.

You’ve had a great run so far since forming in 2011, but have recently gone through some changes along the way. How would you say you’ve developed as a band?

You could say we have matured both mentally and musically, some may disagree with the mentally part though. We’ve changed our sound a lot over the years but we all feel the music we are producing at this stage is by far our best.

How are you finding the response to your music so far?

The response is overwhelming really. Never thought us 4 young lads from Prestonpans would be travelling up and down the country playing our own music to thousands of music lovers.

What’s the story behind your latest single “The Time Is Now” and what inspired you to write the song?

It was wrote back in 2012/13 and we later dropped it from the set. We decided to give it a revisit last year as we missed playing it. It needed a bit more grit and drive to bring it up to standard so that’s what we gave it. We sent the demo to James Darkin in Dublin and his instant reply was “that’s the one”.

Could you tell me about your writing and recording process? How do you work to put a track together with each other’s skills?

Writing we do in many different ways, majority of the time it starts with a guitar riff or chord pattern and we basically make it up from there. Recently we have started writing the structure of the songs down on massive sheets of paper which we had never done before but I guess our brain cells are slowing melting away so there’s no other way! If anyone has any ideas we chuck them in, test them out and if they don’t work someone else has a shot.

Your music has been released through your own independent record label called “EH32 RECORDS.” What was the decision behind setting up a record label and how did it come about?

It was partly our managers decision. It looks a lot more professional I guess and hopefully attract bigger labels to swoop in.

Can we expect an EP or album release in the near future?

We are going to stick with singles for now, maybe an EP soon. Don’t want to rush ourselves into an album at this stage as there’s always room for improvement.

How far have you taken your music? You’ve picked up a good fan following in Scotland, but how are you finding the crowds further afield?

Furthest we’ve been from home is Ireland but hopefully that will change in the near future. The reaction to our live music from them the folks across the border has been superb, Ireland especially loved us… possibly due to the amount of drink we consumed with them. Our manager is based in Ireland so that helps a lot and now we are working with James Darkin who is based in Dublin, we have a right Irish connection you could say.

If you could pick a song by any artist past or present that you could say you wish you had written, what would it be and why?

Think I’ve been asked this one before and I said Queen – Bohemian Rhapsody… cos why not?